“I believe if you took this, you could restructure your DNA to that of a full blooded Sha-Shiri.”
Victoria’s heart stuttered. “Why would I...?”
“If you wish to join Kash in exile, you could not do so as a human.”
“What about--” Victoria’s gaze dropped to her belly. Panic rose in her chest.
“I believe the drug would also restructure the DNA of a developing fetus to match your own, so your child would be Sha-Shiri if you were. It is merely an option for you to consider. I’m concerned that should we encounter any Val’tek or Sha’tek before we are able to return you to earth, you might be in danger in your human form. The drug would allow you to shift temporarily. A second dose would give you the option to change back if taken within a day of the first.”
“Thanks.” Victoria closed her sweaty fingers over the pill. “I feel so much safer now.”
“Victoria, please understand. My people bear no ill will toward humans. We have no desire to subjugate or destroy your race, or force it to conform to our ways. It would pain me to see you injured or captured by either of the radical Sha-Shiri factions.”
“Thank you, Zhora. I do appreciate your help.”
“I’ll show you to quarters where you can rest and think about what you’d like to do, but you should also be prepared for the fact that Taimott may not give you a choice. He believes you should be returned to earth and left alone, no matter what.”
* * * *
Taimott paced in front of Kash on the Mura-jir’s bridge, his brow ridges canted in a stern, worried expression. “You could face charges in an Avan’tek court for mating with a human.”
“We believed we were about to die.” No matter how hard Kash tried, he could no longer muster the requisite shame for his actions. He had no regrets anymore about Victoria. In fact, even now, part of his mind dwelled with her, reliving their stolen moments together and foolishly building a fantasy future in his mind for them to share.
“You were never the type to make excuses, Kash, why now?”
“It is not an excuse. It’s a reason. Our lives were ending and we chose to celebrate rather than await our deaths. You would have done the same.”
“With a Sha-Shiri female, most assuredly, but--”
Kash growled. “It no longer matters to me that Victoria is human or hybrid. If she carries my child I want her as my mate.”
“And if she does not?”
Kash hadn’t considered that possibility. His fertile mind had already provided a passel of healthy offspring for he and Victoria to raise in an idyllic setting somewhere in the universe where no one would ever disturb their happiness.
Before Kash could respond, Taimott continued. “Will you subject her to a life in exile, hiding from the Val’tek who want to force her to breed for them, and from the Sha’tek who merely want to see her dead to assuage their irrational fears?”
“I will do whatever is necessary to keep her safe. Anything.”
“Then I suggest you tell her goodbye. The only place she will be safe is on her own world and I intend to return her to earth as soon as we are within range for the lifeboat to launch.”
“The Val’tek found her once on earth. What makes you think they won’t do it again?” Kash hated challenging Taimott. He respected his friend’s leadership, but in this instance, even though logic dictated the captain of the Mura-jir was right, Kash couldn’t agree. He would never rest not knowing if Victoria was completely safe.
“We have collected evidence to prove her death and yours. Long range scans of the Katavarri being crushed by the star’s gravity should appease the Sha’Tek. Ashan’s final transmission will incite the Val’tek to war, I’m certain, and that should occupy both factions for quite some time. When the fighting on Sha-Shiri is done, no one will be interested in sifting through seven billion human DNA codes to find one that might contain some Sha-Shiri characteristics. I’m sorry, Kash, but I see no alternative.”
* * * *
Victoria stifled a grin at the anxious expression on Kash’s face when he appeared at the doorway of the Mura-jir’s guest quarters that evening.
She backed up to let him step over the threshold, eager to have him close to her, but he remained planted in the corridor.
“I don’t know yet if I’m pregnant,” she said softly. “If that’s what’s bothering you.”
“How could you not know? Zhora said--”
“The tests she ran were inconclusive. They’re all calibrated for Sha-Shiri blood chemistry. She said she could have compared new blood samples to the ones Cherra-Sha took, but all the data from the Katavarri is gone.”
Kash hung his head and his thick, golden hair fell across his eyes. “Taimott plans to send you back to earth, regardless of the results.”
Victoria’s chest felt heavy. She’d been thinking too much and the conclusions she’d come to were hard but necessary choices. She put her hand on the taut muscle of Kash’s bicep and caressed his velvet skin. “Don’t worry. I’ve thought about it and if I am pregnant, I’d be safe on earth. My parents would be there for me. They’ll understand and they’ll help me raise our child, no matter which family tree he takes after.”
Kash nodded. “I forgot about K’vshtin. He would surely see that you were protected.”
“Yes. And Zhora gave me this.” She held out the single dose of the shifter drug. It sparkled in her palm. “I thought about taking it myself and becoming Sha-Shiri so I could be with you.”
Kash’s hot gaze bored into her. “You would forsake your world to join me in exile?”
“I would, but then I decided to save this for my child ... if there is one. He may need it one day more than I do in order to keep him safe from the authorities on earth.”
Kash reached out and closed Victoria’s fingers over the tablet. “You are wise.”
She sighed. “About some things maybe, but not everything.” She curled her fingers around the leather straps of Kash’s harness and tugged him into her room. In spite of his superior size and strength, he yielded to her directive. “How much time do we have?”
“A few hours until the Mura-jir is in range.” His voice was low and the tingle of his breath against her ear made her body instantly ready for him.
“Close the door, Kash. I need you. Will you touch me?”
He stiffened, yet Victoria felt the bulge beneath his loin cloth rising against her thigh. “We should not make the situation worse.” Even as he whispered the words, his tongue caressed the sensitive skin below her jaw. She shivered and ran her hands up to his shoulders.
“We may never get to be together again.”
At her words, Kash stepped closer. He spread her thighs with one of his. Victoria’s breath caught and her heart raced at the notion that their union was somehow forbidden. “Put your hands on me....”
Kash obeyed, trailing his fingers from her hips to her breasts. In an instant, he burrowed under her shirt with one hand. His fingertips ignited the nerve endings directly connected to her sex. Moisture seeped down her thighs when Kash thrust his other hand into the waist band of the leather belt and Sha-shiri skirt she’d borrowed from Zhora. Victoria angled her hips forward to give him better access and moaned her demands to him.
“Lie down!”
She obeyed his command, eager for anything he planned to do to her. She stretched on the cot, legs spread, her back already arching in anticipation.
She squirmed while Kash stripped off his harness and her mouth watered at the sight of his erection jutting from beneath his tight abdominal muscles. She remembered the feel of him inside her, that hot rod of flesh spreading her inner walls to the limit of endurance and she whimpered for him.
He pounced, agile and powerful, and landed above her, straddling her. With single-minded determination, he pulled her clothing off and stretched his body over hers.
“Your scent...,” he purred in her ear while his eager hands explored, petting and teasing her. “I crave it. I need to have your essence on me.�
�
Breathless with need, Victoria responded by rubbing her body against him, spreading her thick cream on his thigh. She guided his hands to her mound. “Touch me....”
He growled. “I need you beneath me. I need to feel you surrender to me again.” He claimed her with a swift thrust, two fingers reaching deep inside her.
She gasped and pivoted her hips to take him in. The tremors of her first orgasm began almost immediately. Her muscles clenched around him and she tumbled from the precipice as if she’d been on the brink all along. “Can you feel me coming? Can you?”
“Yes, that’s it. Take me in, prepare for me.” Kash worked her hard, drawing every last pulse from her orgasm until she lay blurry eyed and panting. She shuddered when he withdrew his fingers from her and stroked her musky essence over the slick skin of her belly and thighs. The gentle touch teased and tingled.
She cried out when he bent his head and licked her skin, tempering the gentle rasp of his tongue with little nips that sent electric jolts of pleasure to her aching clit.
“Are you ready now?” he asked, rising above her. His cock bumped her slit, teasing and testing the swollen flesh and finally parting her folds with slow deliberation a millimeter at a time until she begged for all of him inside her.
When he took her, her body quaked. He gathered her in his arms and held her still, soothing her with unintelligible words while his cock surged and grew, stretching her, filling her.
“Oh my....”
“Don’t move, my mate....” He dipped his head and suckled at her throat, the rumbling in his chest vibrating her body until once again an orgasm ripped through her. His final thrust left her breathless and aware of nothing but the hot stream of his seed pumping into her womb.
“You are mine, and I am yours,” he whispered, claiming her with hard little thrusts that rocked her body to the urgent rhythm of his own.
Beneath him, warm and spent, her body full and trembling, Victoria finally slept.
Chapter Twelve
Kash approached the bridge hours later, his back straight and his gait sure. He expected resistance to his plan from Taimott but he refused to be denied.
He’d left Victoria sleeping, her sweet, sensual body still ripe with estrus. If she had not conceived by now, she likely never would.
Taimott looked up at Kash’s approach and his expression changed from neutrality to one of trepidation. “Why do I sense you’re going to tell me something I don’t want to hear?” he asked.
“I have a solution to our dilemma. Surely that’s worth hearing.”
“Whatever this solution is, does it involve you and the hybrid remaining together?”
“Her name is Victoria. Don’t call her ‘the hybrid.’ She is more than just an accident of genetics.”
Taimott bowed his head. “I meant no insult. I can see she’s exceptional ….”
“But you see her as alien.”
“Of course. She is alien. That doesn’t mean I dislike her.”
Kash shook his head to clear his thoughts. He hadn’t come to debate xenology or philosophy with his old friend. He’d come to ask, or rather to demand, a favor. “Leave me on earth with Victoria. I will take the shifter drug and live as K’vshtin has, as a human.”
Taimott stood, his expression pensive. “Avan’tek law dictates we must step back from human contact and give them more time to mature.”
“I will become human. With Victoria’s help, I will blend into their society and like K’vshtin, no one will know my true heritage ... except my mate and my children.”
Taimott dropped his hands to his sides and paced across the bridge. “K’vshtin’s situation was unique and dangerous. And look what came of his ‘blending’ into society. His daughter was abducted by the Val’tek. This is not a risk free life.”
“What is the alternative? If I return to Sha-Shiri I’ll have to remain in hiding from my own people, hoping for the day the Sha’tek and the Val’tek cease to exist.”
Taimott met Kash’s gaze and he shook his head. “You’ve mated with her again, haven’t you?”
Kash dropped his head, not in shame but frustration. “I will continue to do so. She is my mate. There will be no other for me, ever.”
“You say that now, in the heat of this new passion, but one day you will long for a Sha-Shiri female who can give you--”
“Give me what? A purebred offspring? Freedom from exile?”
“Victoria is mostly human. You don’t know what a child of yours would be, but it would not be fully Sha-Shiri, or fully human either. Like Victoria, it would be unique, with a unique set of problems that neither race might be able to satisfy.”
Kash sighed. He could not argue that point. “Either way, I cannot leave her.”
“I’m not sure I can let you go with her, Kash. For your own good.”
Kash turned. He gave Taimott a look that no Sha-Shiri could mistake as anything other than a challenge. “I’m not asking your permission, Taimott. I’m telling you I will be going to earth with Victoria.”
* * * *
“Well?” Victoria gave Zhora a wide-eyed stare and the Sha-Shiri medic shrugged.
“Nothing conclusive. I don’t think my instruments will ever be able to detect a human pregnancy without some baseline readings to compare against. I wish I had Cherra-Sha’s notes.”
Victoria sighed. She’d gone from apprehension to abject hope. She wanted Kash’s child, a part of him to keep forever, even if he would spend his life on the other side of the galaxy.
She knew now what she wanted from life and she wanted it desperately. She wanted what her parents had, her own special family to nurture and protect and she wanted to feel Kash inside her, body and soul, forever.
Zhora sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m beginning to wonder if Sha-Shiri and human DNA are not compatible at all.”
Victoria gaped. “How do you explain me?”
“You said your father may have taken the shifter drug before or possibly during conception. I’ve run some simulated tests and with the extent of DNA resequencing that would have occurred, I’m beginning to think you may not be half Sha-Shiri after all. I don’t know what Cherra-Sha found, but according to my limited scans, you’re completely genetically human.”
“But the Val’tek came all the way to earth to get me. Cherra-Sha believed ….”
“Cherra-Sha was a Val’tek agent who may have seen what she wanted to see. If you have Sha-Shiri traits, they are not dominant in the least. I doubt you would even pass them on to an offspring.”
Victoria tried to swallow that disconcerting thought. All her life she’d considered herself special, not for her intelligence or her good fortune at having two loving, caring parents, but because of her secret heritage. Being half Sha-Shiri had given her the edge she always thought she needed to overcome the many obstacles life had thrown at her. It had given her the courage to overcome her shyness as a child, to always fight for what she believed in because she knew a Sha-Shiri would do just that. It had given her the courage to walk away from Mark and put his unintentional humiliation behind her.
Now, at twenty-six, finding out she might be only human stripped her of her uniqueness. A valuable portion of her identity had been excised along with the foolish hope that she carried Kash’s child.
She slid off the medical cot and Zhora patted her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Victoria. I’ll be happy to run the tests again before you leave Mura-jir.”
Victoria shook her head. “I don’t think that will be necessary, Zhora. Thank you, anyway.”
* * * *
“Ashan’s ship is beyond sensor range. It’s likely he won’t be coming back,” M’tash announced when the crew had assembled in the conference room at the end of the Mura-jir’s day cycle.
“That’s great. That means the Sha’tek believe we’re dead, right?” Victoria asked. Once again she sat next to Kash. Beneath the table, their thighs touched and his fingers entwined with hers.
Taimott had settled his
piercing silver-blue gaze on them and Victoria swore she could feel his disapproval engulf them across the table. “It would seem so. We can circle the sun and return to earth now.”
Victoria glanced at Kash. They’d discussed the possibility of him coming with her regardless of Taimott’s concerns. The Mura-jir’s captain shook his head as if he’d read her mind.
“Kash, I wish I could force you to return to Sha-Shiri. In order to protect you both, when we return home, I’m going to have to tell your family that you’re dead.”
Kash nodded and Victoria sensed the tension in the hard planes of his body. How would she feel in the same situation? She’d have given up earth to go with him into hiding, knowing her parents would never know exactly what became of her.
“Let them believe I died for a cause they all support. You can tell them the truth someday, when the Sha’tek threat has passed.”
“We’ll all pray to the Creator for that day to come swiftly,” Zhora said. “Perhaps there will be a time when we will be able to visit you on earth and be welcomed by Victoria’s people.”
“You have a standing invitation,” Victoria said. She closed her hand over Kash’s and squeezed. “Just park your spaceship in the woods out back and come on down. I know my father will always be glad to see you.”
Chapter Thirteen
Kash faced Victoria in the small room he’d been assigned on the Mura-jir. Beyond the tiny portal, earth hung blue and jewel-like over her bare shoulder. Their journey would begin shortly and he had to prepare.
“Will it hurt?” Victoria asked. Kash blinked. She stood before him, naked, her skin glistening with sweat from their recent lovemaking. He’d taken her body a final time in his Sha-Shiri form and now he held the shifter tablet in his palm, ready to become human.
“Originally the drug was designed to disguise a dead or injured body. Pain was not an issue.”
“My father never really spoke about the transformation in detail, but I always got the impression it wasn’t exactly pleasant.”
“Perhaps it would be better if you didn’t watch.”
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